Seychelles Manta Ray Programme Celebrates Exciting New Milestone

In the waters surrounding a remote island in the Western Indian Ocean, a juvenile male reef manta ray with a brand-new name – ‘Jubilee’ – unknowingly represents a major milestone in manta research as he swims along. Jubilee recently became the 500th reef manta ray to have been identified by the Seychelles Manta Ray Programme (SMRP), the first long-term study of manta ray biology and ecology in the country. It’s a milestone that has been worked towards for over a decade, and one that represents collaboration, dedication and teamwork across an entire archipelago.

The reef manta ray is one of Seychelles’ most charismatic inhabitants, famed for its size, intelligence and gentle nature. However, until recently, little was known about it in Seychelles, given the remote nature of its aggregation sites in the Outer Islands. That all changed in 2012, when the Save Our Seas Foundation D’Arros Research Centre (SOSF-DRC) was established on the secluded island of D’Arros. A year later the SMRP was born from a collaboration between the SOSF-DRC and The Manta Trust.

‘From the start, we knew we wanted a research programme that could address some of the key questions and knowledge gaps for the reef manta ray in Seychelles. We wanted to understand its population size, the habitats the rays were using and the threats they were facing,’ says Dr Guy Stevens, CEO of The Manta Trust. ‘And, more broadly, we wanted to understand how manta rays were connected across the whole Seychelles archipelago.’

More than 10 years on, the SMRP has expanded into a network of collaborators from across Seychelles that includes the SOSF-DRC, The Manta Trust, Blue Safari Seychelles, Island Conservation Society, Fregate Island and the AlphonseFoundation. They all contribute their sightings to an ever-expanding photo-identification database.

Handily, there is an easy way to tell individual reef manta rays apart. ‘Mantas all have patterns of spots on their bellies that are like fingerprints. They don’t change over the course of a lifetime and they’re unique to each individual,’ explains Henriette Grimmel, Programme Director for the SOSF-DRC. Henriette spends much of her working week with the reef manta rays that congregate right on the centre’s doorstep. She and the SOSF-DRC team conduct weekly surveys, skilfully free-diving beneath the feeding mantas and taking care not to disturb the animals as they capture images of their bellies.

In recent years, the SOSF-DRC has also installed the remote camera system ‘MantaCam’, which takes photographs at cleaning stations around the island every 10 seconds to record every manta ray that visits. It’s then up to the team to sift through hard drives full of images, examining those personalised patterns of blotches, spots and stripes and comparing them to existing photos in the database to see if there’s a match. In doing so, they can pinpoint if it’s an individual they’ve seen already or one that is new to the SMRP.

With such an extensive database of imagery, the team can also monitor important life events – like injuries and pregnancies. ‘When they’re in the third and fourth trimesters, you can tell by their baby bumps. And that all goes on record,’ says Henriette. ‘So you can see the shifts across individuals and across life stages as well by simply taking photos.’ Analysis also shows that 37% of the known population has some type of injury, mainly from shark bites, but some caused by fishing gear and boat propellers.

Collectively, this information is providing crucial insight into the behaviour, life histories and movements of reef manta rays in Seychelles – insight that can then be used to help protect them from threats, including bycatch and targeted fishing practices. Dr Lauren Peel has spent the past 10 years studying this population and has been integral to the development of the SMRP, initially as a project leader and now as project adviser. For Lauren, one of the most significant findings has been confirming the connectivity of reef manta rays between Seychelles’ Amirantes and the Alphonse Group. ‘Our confirmation of connectivity is significant because while individual mantas demonstrate high residency at the shallow aggregation sites in these areas, we now also know that they are also making the 200-kilometre (125-mile) journey between them, through waters reaching more than 1,000 metres (3,280 feet) deep,’ she explains. ‘This finding highlights the importance of protecting manta rays at known aggregation sites and shows how a protective network could benefit conservation efforts, not only within Seychelles, but across the broader Western Indian Ocean region too.’

These findings can be used not only to inform future conservation strategies and policies, but also to engage the wider public in reef manta ray conservation. By naming and tracking individual manta rays ‘we can engage people in the lives of these animals … creating empathy and connection in a very specific individual way’, says Guy. ‘And then you can talk about the things that have happened to that individual over time. Did it get bitten by a shark? Was it pregnant? Those are really connecting stories that make an impact.’

Perhaps one of the greatest stories is the manta ray that started it all. ‘Flat-Face’ was the first reef manta ray to be identified and catalogued – and, more than 10 years later, he’s still around. ‘He was here yesterday!’ smiles Henriette. ‘And he’s the most sighted individual in the country. He’s still going strong – and he’s not even mature yet.’

The regular efforts of the SOSF-DRC, combined with the data contributed by the SMRP’s collaborative partners and citizen scientists, have almost doubled the number of manta IDs in the past four years, enabling the programme to reach the celebratory 500th manta ray milestone. ‘To be honest, it renders me speechless and is a huge testament to all the hard work and community effort that the SMRP represents,’ says Lauren. ‘It’s very exciting to reach 500 individuals, with numbers still climbing, and there are large parts of the Seychelles archipelago still to explore for new aggregation sites.’

You can keep up with Seychelles’ reef manta rays, or submit your own sighting record here:

https://www.mantatrust.org/mantabase-submission-form.

Alternatively, you can e-mail smrp@mantatrust.org with the details of your sighting. If you find a new manta, you will have the opportunity to name it!

FOR MANTA TRUST MEDIA ENQUIRIES

Contact: Jasmine Corbett
Manta Trust Media and Communications Manager
Email: jasmine.corbett@mantatrust.org

Press Release Credits

Written by: Save Our Seas Foundation
Images: Photographer’s credit below images – ensure that credit is given if images are used

About the Manta Trust

The Manta Trust is a UK-registered marine conservation charity dedicated to the research and protection of manta and devil rays and their habitats. Through research, education, and collaboration, the Manta Trust works to ensure a sustainable future for these extraordinary creatures.